With the Celtics’ four-game exhibition season behind us, it’s time to start thinking about what the starting lineup for this team will look like on opening night at TD Garden against the 76ers on Wednesday night.

With Jayson Tatum likely out for all of 2025-26 as he continues to rehab his Achilles, there was already a massive scoring void that needed to be filled by 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown.

Add in the fact that Boston traded Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis along with letting Al Horford and Luke Kornet walk in free agency, all of which was done with the intention of avoiding being in the dreaded second apron of luxury tax penalties, and Boston is faced with a blank canvass for what their rotation will look like on a nightly basis this upcoming regular season.

So what does that look like?

Here’s my projected starting lineup for the 2025-26 Boston Celtics: 

Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Chris Boucher and Neemias Queta

I think the starting lineup you saw during Boston’s preseason finale against the Raptors makes the most sense for the Celtics this upcoming regular season.

Pritchard and White give you the traditional 1-2 backcourt combination, with the reigning Sixth Man of the Year having the opportunity to show he can be a complete point guard next to the do-it-all defensive standout in White.

Brown is Brown. If he’s healthy, he’s your Option A, B and C on offense, and he’ll likely be guarding your best player on defense (please be healthy).

I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Boucher a lot this preseason. His lanky 6-foot-9 frame allows him to guard basically all five positions on the floor (depending on the opponent’s center on any given night), and he showed an ability to score in a variety of ways during Preseason Game 2 up in his hold stomping grounds of Toronto.

That night, Boucher accounted for 19 points on 7 of 10 shooting, going 2 for 5 from three and 3 of 4 from the free throw line. He led the game in rebounds with 9, and added 2 assists, a block and a steal. He finished with a game-high +22, just one game after finishing with second highest plus-minus on the team at +16.

At 32 years old, Boucher has a resume that includes six different franchise bench-records for the Raptors, as well as 2 NBA Championship rings. He won back-to-back titles to open his career, as he was a rookie on the 2018 Warriors before joining Toronto ahead of their championship-winning 2018-19 season.

Put him next to Queta, and hope that what you saw on Wednesday night (12 boards, 4 blocks) from the Portugal-product is what you get most nights on defense moving forward.

On nights where a smaller lineup is needed, this would be my preferred alternative:

Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Sam Hauser and Chris Boucher

Think “Warriors Death Lineup” where Draymond played center, except substitute out five future Hall of Famers for three above-average offensive players, a career bench body, and Jaylen Brown.

I think Boucher has the size and versatility to deal with some of the more athletic lineups in the league. I also think Hauser brings underrated defense to go along with his three point shooting acumen. It might not look pretty on paper, but I think it’ll play against smaller teams.

In both lineups described above, I like Anfernee Simons slotting in as the sixth man, giving Boston the ability for instant offense off the bench while not asking the 26-year-old to do too much defensively. We’ve seen his scoring ability on display this preseason. I believe Mazzulla is going to be able to unlock the former Blazer.

No word yet on what Mazzulla’s starting lineup will look like ahead of next week’s opening night game against Philadelphia. My guess is this - if Joel Embiid is in the lineup, the Queta lineup described above will be the starting rotation.

Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.